Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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44 MAY 2022 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED IRISH ECHOES JIM LEFEBVRE BY JIM LEFEBVRE W hen the 1924 Notre Dame foot- ball team — featuring the Four Horsemen and the Seven Mules — won the school's first consensus na- tional championship, they were pre- sented trophies from multiple honoring bodies. In that same year, Jack F. Rissman, Chicago businessman and sports en- thusiast, created the Rissman Trophy to honor college football's national cham- pion. In addition, Judge Eugene C. Bon- niwell — representing the Veteran Ath- letes of Philadelphia — presented the Bonniwell National Football Trophy of America to head coach Knute Rockne's squad. One stipulation of the Rissman Tro- phy, which traveled each year to the na- tional champion, was that if one school won the trophy three times in a decade, it would retain possession permanently. Thus, after Notre Dame won its third national title in 1930, the Rissman was retired. After Rockne's death in a plane crash on March 31, 1931, Notre Dame decided to replace the Rissman with the Rockne Trophy, with the same stipulation. The national titles were determined by the most widely recognized method at the time: the Dickinson System, a formula developed by University of Illinois economics professor Frank Dickinson to rank college teams based upon the quality of their results factoring in the strength of their opponent. Notre Dame's fabled Four Horsemen — Harry Stuhldreher, Jim Crowley, Don Miller and Elmer Layden — stepped up to sponsor the Rockne Trophy. Over the next decade, the University of Minne- sota won the Rockne Trophy in 1934, 1936 and 1940. In a ceremony on Feb. 8, 1941, the Knute Rockne Trophy was retired per- manently to the Minnesota trophy case, said news reports at the time. (Joel Maturi, a 1967 Notre Dame grad who served as Minnesota's athletics director from 2002-12, reports that he was not aware of the Rockne Trophy in his time leading the Gophers, but a search for it has begun.) Minnesota continued the trophy tra- dition in 1941, creating the Williams Trophy, honoring its legendary coach Henry L. "Doc" Williams from 1900-21. Frank Leahy's Fighting Irish made quick work of it, retiring the Williams with national titles in 1942, 1946 and 1947. Rockne's name was also on a national award for the outstanding lineman in college football, presented by the Wash- ington Touchdown Club into the 1960s. For the past five years, the Knute Rockne Memorial Society has pre- sented the Knute Rockne Spirit of Sports awards in several categories rep- resenting significant traits of the leg- endary coach. Among those honored: Ara Parseghian, Rocky Bleier, Johnny Lujack, Muffet McGraw, Luther Brad- ley, Alan Page, Aaron Taylor and Barry Alvarez, among many other deserving recipients. It's a way to keep alive one of the most important names in American sports history. (See more at www.Rockne Society.org). TOP ASSISTANT RETURNS TO WORK WITH QB LEGEND One of the most accomplished assis- tants in recent NFL history, Tom Cle- ments, has returned to the league after a brief "retirement." Clements, 68, quarterbacked Notre Dame to the 1973 national champion- ship and then embarked on a stellar ca- reer in the Canadian Football League, winning two Grey Cups while becoming a seven-time CFL all-star. Clements has coached 22 seasons in the NFL, including 11 with the Green Bay Packers, where he coached both Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers, win- ning the 2011 Super Bowl with Rodgers in his third year as a starter. Clements went from quarterbacks coach to offen- Head coach Harry Kipke (center) and his national champion Michigan football team received the Rockne Trophy in 1932. WIRE PHOTO COURTESY MVICTORS.COM Rockne Trophy Once Honored College Football's National Champions